Results tagged ‘ Jeff Karstens ’

One of these days, I will speak glowingly about the Pittsburgh weather (probably in June). For the moment, though, I have nothing nice to say. Which means I won’t say anything at all.

Some more positive Easter morning thoughts…

After last night’s game, Nationals starter Livan Hernandez made comments inferring that the Pirates purposefully didn’t let him know about an 8:15 pm start time early enough for him to appropriately get ready. My reaction to hearing this? Sounds much more like an excuse than anything newsworthy. And here’s why… It was announced in the press box and stadium 30 minutes before the start (which ended up being 8:16 pm) that the game would start at about 8:15. Furthermore, JeffKarstens said (unsolicited) afterward that he was woken up from a nap about 30 minutes before the game’s scheduled start time. In other words, the same time the press box and fans got an announcement about a start time, so, too, did Karstens. How Hernandez could have missed a memo that went out to everyone else in the vicinity of the ballpark doesn’t necessarily appear to be the fault of the Pirates. My guess? Had Hernandez not given up five runs in the first, he wouldn’t have said a word. Instead, we get much ado about nothing.

Speaking of Karstens, he looks to be the guy who will continue to fill in for Ross Ohlendorf. The Pirates considered other options before going with Karstens the last two times through the rotation. But given his performance on Saturday, Karstens has given the Pirates no reason but to continue sticking with him.

Evan Meek has quietly made six scoreless relief appearances. One factor maybe not brought up enough earlier this month when Meek was struggling is that the guy has been sick almost since the start of the season. Between having a tough time fighting a virus (though Meek appears healthy now) and some missed time with shoulder tightness, Meek never got much of a chance to settle in. Maybe he is finally doing so now.

Speaking of the bullpen, the group as a whole has been tremendous lately. In the ‘pen’s last 20 innings, it has allowed two earned runs. Overall, the bullpen’s 2.56 season ERA ranks fourth in the National League.

Joe Beimel’s one-inning appearance on Saturday was his first as a Pirate at PNC Park since September 21, 2003.

Look for more on Andrew McCutchen stealing bases and Chris Resop’s strong start in the Pirates Beat on the main site later this afternoon.

Since manager Clint Hurdle seemed a tad disappointed that no one asked the question during the media’s pregame session, let me begin by sharing his unsolicited thoughts about Jose Tabata. Hurdle was specifically impressed with Tabata’s plate discipline and willingness to take a six-pitch walk in final at-bat on Wednesday. Tabata entered the night with a 10-game hitting streak but was 0-for-2 with a walk when he came to the plate in the eighth.

By taking a walk, he lost his chance at adding another game to his personal streak.

“I’m not saying it’s normal, but you’ll find players at times that will put individual accomplishments in front of the game from time to time,” Hurdle said. “A young man going up there, knowing what he needed to do and got down early in the count… took a walk. He’ll have other 10-game hitting streaks. He’ll have longer ones than that. But it was very encouraging to see that that’s his mindset. His mindset is not that he can have an 11-game hitting streak.”

Tabata can begin a new hitting streak tonight. Obviously, he has still reached base in every game this year.

Other pregame news and notes…

Catcher Chris Snyder is back and is in the lineup. This means that Ryan Doumit will not see nearly the playing time he had through 11 games. Hurdle didn’t specify what proportion of games Snyder will catch, but it’s clear that Snyder is the team’s primary catcher. He is likely to get a few more days off early on just to ease him back into action.

For all the flak Doumit took last year about not being able to throw out runners, he has been much, much better so far this year. Doumit has thrown out three of six runners trying to steal against him and has just looked more comfortable in the process. The pitchers appear to be helping, too, as the stopwatches show that balls are getting from the mound to the plate quicker than they were a year ago.

Expect lefty Joe Beimel to be joining the club in Cincinnati on Friday. He has completed his rehab assignment with Triple-A Indianapolis. A move will have to be made to put Beimel on the 40-man roster.

Righty Jeff Karstens is available in the bullpen again tonight, but this is the last night he will be a ‘pen option. The Pirates haven’t announced him as Sunday’s starter, but you can expect Karstens to step in for the start assuming he isn’t needed in long relief tonight.

Third baseman Pedro Alvarez gets the night off on Thursday. He arrived at the ballpark early to take some extra swings, and Hurdle said there are some specific mechanical tweaks that were focused on during the session. Hurdle didn’t get into details, but he did suggest that Alvarez’s confidence could be boosted by him being able to start back at the basics.

Taking Alvarez’s place at third base will be Steve Pearce. This will be Pearce’s first start at third in the Majors. He was a late-inning substitution there on Saturday.

Matt Diaz moves into the cleanup spot, which would seem warranted given his 5-for-19 start. Who would have guessed, though, that all of Diaz’s hits to this point would be off righties? He is 0-for-4 against lefties.

Lyle Overbay, who dropped to the sixth spot in the order, is also looking for his first hit against a left-hander.

With last night a wash out, let’s try this again. Not much news to report on since no game has been played since Sunday afternoon, but here are a few news and notes to run through…

Because of the rainout, Jeff Karstens will no longer slot into the rotation behind Kevin Correia (Wednesday) and Paul Maholm (Thursday). Now, Charlie Morton will start against the Reds on Friday, with James McDonald slated for Saturday. Right now, the Pirates are keeping Sunday’s starter as TBD — though it’s my guess that Karstens will pitch then.

That would change if Karstens is needed out of the bullpen one of these next two days. And manager Clint Hurdle said Karstens will be available for relief duty through the end of the series against the Brewers.

If Karstens is unable to pitch on Tuesday, the Pirates would almost certainly turn to Brian Burres. Sunday will be Burres’ scheduled day to pitch next.

Hurdle talked for a while today about Texas’ Josh Hamilton’s ill-advised headfirst slide yesterday. Hamilton has landed on the DL because of it, and that prompted Hurdle to talk with the club again today reminding them that they do not need to be sliding headfirst, especially into home plate. The risk of injury outweighs the gamble of being safe.

Interesting lineup switch in the last 24 hours. On Tuesday, Garrett Jones was slated to play against righty Shaun Marcum. Now, Matt Diaz is inserted into the lineup. Why the change when it’s still Marcum on the mound tonight? Hurdle said after sleeping on it, he opted to go with Diaz for a few reasons. Diaz is swinging the bat better at the moment, and right-handed hitters have actually fared better against Marcum than left-handers.

The unexpected righty-lefty splits even prompted hitting coach Gregg Ritchie to talk to the team’s switch hitters about possibly hitting from the right side today. Normally, it would be a given that they’d take their swings left-handed against a right-handed pitcher. It’ll be interesting to see what Ryan Doumit and Neil Walker opt to do.

Evan Meek is cleared and ready to pitch out of the ‘pen today.

Joe Beimel reported no issues on Wednesday after pitching on back-to-back days earlier in the week. The Pirates are going to see how he is feeling tomorrow, but Hurdle strongly hinted that Beimel could be joining the team as early as Friday. The logisitics would be easy, as Indianapolis is just a two hour drive from Cincinnati.

Righty Bryan Morris pitched six shutout innings in his second start for Double-A Altoona this season. He allowed four hits, walked one and struck out three in the outing on Tuesday. Morris was a candidate to start the year in Triple-A and very well could have if the Pirates didn’t need to keep some Major League arms (Burres, Sean Gallagher) there as insurance.

Catcher Chris Snyder played his sixth game in as many days for Class A Advanced Bradenton on Tuesday. He went 1-for-4 with two runs scored.

Pittsburgh has recalled right-hander Daniel McCutchen from Triple-A Indianapolis and placed Ross Ohlendorf on the disabled list with a right shoulder posterior strain. This isn’t much of a surprise, given that the Pirates had to get a pitcher up here after Friday’s 14-inning marathon.

McCutchen would give the Pirates a length option out of the bullpen on Saturday if Charlie Morton is unable to go deep. I suspect that Chris Resop, Garrett Olson and Jeff Karstens will all be unavailable after their workloads on Friday. Evan Meek is questionable due to right shoulder tightness. Once the clubhouse opens in a bit, more should be known about his status.

Ohlendorf’ left his start on Friday with soreness in the same area of his right shoulder that caused him to sit out the final 5-6 weeks in 2010. He said he doesn’t believe the injury is as serious this time, but the Pirates are going to have to wait and see on that one.

Manager Clint Hurdle should let us know later today who will step in to fill Ohlendorf’s rotation spot, though my guess would be Karstens. He pitched well in relief of Ohlendorf on Friday and has shown an ability to step in and provide the team with quality starts in a pinch before.

Ross Ohlendorf left Friday’s start against the Rockies with two out in the third due to discomfort in his right shoulder.

After inducing a deep fly ball out, Ohlendorf came off the mound and was met by head athletic trainer Brad Henderson near the third-base foul line. After a short consultation, Ohlendorf headed to the dugout and Jeff Karstens was called in from the bullpen.

Ohlendorf exited with the Pirates trailing, 3-0. Colorado scored all of its runs in the first when Jason Giambi followed a walk and infield hit with a blast over the right-field wall. Ohlendorf threw 30 pitches in that first inning, though he appeared to be settling in after the home run.

In the 2 2/3-inning outing, Ohlendorf threw 52 pitches, 31 of which were strikes.

This is it, folks. Later this afternoon the players will board a flight to Philadelphia. And I will board a flight to Pittsburgh. I am so looking forward to getting back home for 48 hours, regardless of how cold it might be.

I will not be covering the pair of games in Philly, though someone will be there to take care of news. I will rejoin the club in Chicago on Thursday for the day-before-Opening-Day workout and then look forward to being with you for the next six months.

One other note: You might have already noticed that pirates.com underwent a site redesign overnight. I hope you find the site easier to navigate. One omission, however, is a link to the blog in the headlines section. I’m not sure if that is going to change, so if you are a frequent blog reader and haven’t already, it might be a good idea to bookmark this page.

As for your last Spring Training morning news/notes…

Jeff Karstens is scheduled to pitch five innings (80 pitches) today in an effort to make sure that he would be ready to start the year in the rotation if needed. Karstens is a Plan B option in case James McDonald isn’t yet ready on April 5.

Speaking of McDonald, he threw a bullpen session this morning without any problems. Next for McDonald will be an outing on Thursday. The goal will be five innings. After that game, the Pirates will know whether McDonald will be able to start the season in the big league rotation.

It looks as if the Pirates will not make their final roster moves until the club is in Philadelphia. That means the bullpen remains unsettled.

In case you missed it yesterday, Josh Rodriguez is on the team and Pedro Ciriaco will begin the year in Triple-A. Also, because it appears as if Chris Snyder is headed to the DL, outfielder John Bowker and Jason Jaramillo win the final bench spots.

Might I say that seeing kU lose to VCU yesterday absolutely made my day/weekend/year. That said, our Bucs Bits Bloggers bracket challenge has most of us left with not a single correct Final Four pick (yes, I fit in this category). The current leader is D. Hague.

The news of the day came just about two hours ago, when manager Clint Hurdle named Kevin Correia the Opening Day starter. My guess had been that Paul Maholm would get the assignment and that Correia would pitch the home opener at PNC Park for a handful of reasons, one being Maholm’s tenure with the club. But the Pirates decided to go in a different direction.

Correia will face Chicago’s Ryan Dempster in that April 1 game at Wrigley Field.

Hurdle also announced that the rotation would go in this order: Correia, Maholm, Ross Ohlendorf, Charlie Morton and James McDonald.

All this is set assuming that McDonald can get his arm built back up in time. The hope is that he can extend himself to 50 pitches in an outing on Saturday. Then, McDonald would stay in Florida to pitch on March 31 — with the goal being 80 pitches. If McDonald can reach both of those thresholds without any setback, Hurdle said the team would be comfortable having McDonald start on April 6 in St. Louis.

As for the rest of your news…

Catcher Chris Snyder returns behind the plate on Thursday after missing two weeks with back soreness. He hasn’t had any back issues since resuming hitting and catching over the past few days.

Joe Beimel was scheduled to throw off the mound on Thursday. The Pirates haven’t announced what his progression will be from there, as Beimel returns from left elbow discomfort. One thing to keep in mind — if Beimel does not pitch in a Grapefruit League game the rest of the way, the Pirates would have the option of placing him on the DL to begin the season. And the club could make that DL stint retroactive to March 22. This means that Beimel would be eligible to come off on April 6. Going this route would give Beimel — who has made just two appearances so far this spring — a bit more time to prepare for the season but wouldn’t cost him the usual 15 days.

The Pirates’ other option is not to put Beimel on the 40-man roster until he’s healthy. Doing this would negate needing a DL stint since Beimel is a non-roster player right now.

Hurdle said that the club has already picked additional pitchers to be in the team’s bullpen, but he would not give names at this point. You’d have to guess that in addition to Evan Meek and Joel Hanrahan that Chris Resop, Jose Veras and Jeff Karstens are in. So, too, is Beimel once he is healthy. I also get the impression that Garrett Olson has a real strong shot to be the seventh since he would give the Pirates another left-handed option.

If Beimel does not start the season with the club, the Pirates can choose any one of the number of right-handers left in camp to take his spot in the ‘pen until he returns.

Brian Burres deserves mention here, and serious consideration for one of the Pirates’ 25 roster spots. I understand that Spring Training results aren’t everything, but Burres has pitched quite well this spring. He shouldn’t be under the radar anymore.

Working against Burres is the fact that he would fit into a role much like the one Jeff Karstens is expected to hold — spot starter, long relief guy, etc. But since Karstens is on the roster and due to make $1.1 million this year, it’s hard to see the Pirates not bringing Karstens north.

If Charlie Morton gets the fifth spot in the Pirates’ rotation and the other four starters are healthy, there isn’t a place for Burres to start. There is at least one spot left in the bullpen, so maybe that is a place where Burres can fit.

To this point, the thinking seems to have been that Scott Olsen would land as the second lefty in the ‘pen if he didn’t crack the rotation. But Olsen hasn’t done all that well in his first two appearances, so I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that Burres could have an edge over Olsen. The fact that the Pirates owe Olsen very little in guaranteed salary would mean that the club wouldn’t be on the hook for that much money if Olsen doesn’t stick.

This is certainly something to keep an eye on as the last two weeks play out. Of course, Burres could also be asked to accept an assignment in Triple-A, where he would start and wait until the Pirates need a fill-in starter.

***

Speaking of Burres, he pitched four shutout innings in the Pirates’ intrasquad game on Thursday. He allowed two hits, walked two and struck out five.

“It went well,” Burres said. “I felt good and got the pitch count up. I worked with the fastball pretty good.”

In addition to those results, Burres has pitched nine scoreless innings in Grapefruit League action.

“There are a couple things that I still want to continue to do,” Burres said. “But as far as where I am now, I think I’ve done a pretty decent job this spring trying to do the things that I’ve wanted to do.”

***

Karstens hasn’t had as good of results as Burres has, but the right-hander is nonetheless pleased with his progression to this point. Pitching mostly against players from the Pirates’ Latin American teams, Karstens didn’t allow a hit and struck out six in three innings in the intrasquad game.

“With some of the young guys it’s a little bit easier because their approach is a little bit different,” Karstens said afterward. “When you’re over here [in big league camp], you know the guys have an idea of what they’re trying to do. But I tried to come in with some fastballs after the first inning. I made some mistakes with it – got away with them – and I made some good pitches. It’s a positive note. I was able to get ahead. Just nice to get back out there and throw more than two innings.”

Karstens has made four Grapefruit League appearances, three of which have been two-inning outings. In those seven innings, Karstens has allowed nine hits, two earned runs and walked three.

***

There was good and bad to Ross Ohlendorf’s start on Thursday — though Ohlendorf would attest that there was more good. The pitching line is ugly — six earned runs on eight hits in three innings. But it wasn’t, Ohlendorf said, as bad as it might have seemed.

“I was actually really happy with how I threw the ball today,” he said. “The results, obviously, weren’t very good in that last inning, but a lot of the early hits weren’t hit that well. I felt like I kept the ball down when I wanted to much better than the game before. I threw the ball much better than I did before even though the results weren’t really indicative of that.”

Ohlendorf did make a mistake on a slider to Jake Fox, and that resulted in a two-run homer. The only other ball hit pretty hard in that six-run third inning could easily have been caught by Jose Tabata in the outfield.

“The challenge at this level is putting innings away,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “I thought there were times when he was throwing the ball really well – getting the ball inside when he wanted to. He spun the ball OK on occasion. But the one inning got away from us. There was some positive in it, but the inability to put away the inning that’s where we have to get better.”

Still, it’s not pretty when you consider that Ohlendorf has allowed 10 earned runs in his last two games (five innings). And probably the biggest concern is that Ohlendorf has yet to go more than three innings in any of his starts.

Yes, he is throwing the pitches needed to build up his arm. But there is something to be said for pitchers using those pitches efficiently to get through four or five innings by this point in the spring.

Right now, only Paul Maholm and Kevin Correia have made a five-inning spring start.

“We’ve got work to do,” Hurdle said. “We’re not throwing enough strikes. We don’t have good enough command right now. I have no idea what our pitch count was today, but we threw way too many pitches today. We’d like to see our starters lengthen things out. There is work to be done. That’s what Spring Training is for. That’s why you have the amount of games that you have, and that’s why these starters have to keep building up their pitch counts.”

***

Both Joe Beimel and Olsen pitched again on Thursday, and the results weren’t too pretty.

Beimel was charged with three earned runs on three hits and a walk in an inning of relief. This was his second spring appearance.

As for Olsen, he was unable to finish two innings, as he had to be taken out after pitching 1 1/3. Olsen gave up three runs on three hits and three walks. He struck out one.

“We’ll keep feeding them the ball, too,” Hurdle said. “They started out behind. Neither one of them are complaining about any injuries or any arm fatigue or anything like that, so just keep feeding them the ball.”

I’m still skeptical that Olsen is truly in that fifth starter mix, and Hurdle didn’t exactly affirm that Olsen was when I asked the question afterward.

In response to a question about whether Olsen was still a candidate for the rotation, Hurdle answered: “I don’t know. He could be. I can’t say no. I’ll leave the speculation out there for people who want to speculate. I’ll keep giving him the ball and see where it takes him.”

That’s not exactly a yes.

***

Catcher Ryan Doumit (mild oblique strain) is scheduled to play in Friday’s game against the Phillies. Doumit went 3-for-4 with a double and home run in a Minor League game on Thursday.

Though Doumit hasn’t played since March 8, he will have plenty of time to get ready for Opening Day assuming there are no further setbacks.

***

Outfielder Miles Durham said he was OK after a nasty collision with the right field wall in the ninth inning. He was down for a while, but walked off the field without any help. And he seemed just fine about 20 minutes later when he was leaving the ballpark.

Hours from the start of the NCAA basketball tournament, the focus in the Pirates’ clubhouse this morning was all basketball. Players were finishing up brackets and officially joining the clubhouse pool. There are some serious bragging rights up for grabs at this time of the year, and you can be sure that college basketball will overtake SportsCenter as the preferred channel on the TV clubhouse for the next four days.

Your morning news…

As mentioned yesterday, the Pirates have an intrasquad game over at Pirate City this morning. Pedro Ciriaco (CF) and Steve Pearce (3B) will get more work at their new positions. Brian Burres and Jeff Karstens will both make extended-inning starts in the contest.

Catcher Ryan Doumit is no longer slated to play in the intrasquad game. Instead, he will bat every inning in a Minor League game at Pirate City this afternoon. He’ll get plenty of at-bats — and that is the key.

Pearce said he has eliminated the leg kick from his swing in an effort to make him better prepared for a bench role — which is what he is hoping to earn by the end of the month. Without a leg kick, Pearce has less movement with his swing. Less movement is a good thing when the at-bats aren’t as consistent. You can read more about Pearce’s adjustment on pirates.com later this afternoon.

I should have mentioned this earlier, but I was told that Kiyoshi Momose (the Pirates’ Lating American Strength and Conditioning Coordinator) has communicated with all his family in Japan since the earthquake/tsunami. All are OK. Momose was born in Nagano. I was also told he has talked with Aki Iwamura and Masumi Kuwata, both of whom are reportedly doing fine.

Happy St. Patty’s Day to the Irish among you. The Pirates will be wearing forest green hats on the field today, and there will be green bases for the game.

This is your last reminder that the blog NCAA challenge closes at tipoff of the first NCAA game this afternoon. You can go here to log-in and then search for (and join) the group Bucs Bits Bloggers. Best of luck to all. And since a few of you suggested there be an actual prize for the winner, I’ll see what I can do.

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